Temperature dependence of irradiation-induced nanocrystallization in amorphous silicon carbide

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms Beam interactions with materials and atoms, 2021-11, Vol.507 (C), p.1-6
• Main Authors: Zhang, Limin, Jiang, Weilin, Wang, Shenghong, Varga, Tamas, Pan, Chenglong, Wang, Zhiqiang, Chen, Liang, Li, Bingsheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ion irradiation; Nucleation and growth; Silicon carbide
• ISSN: 0168-583X; 1872-9584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2021.09.011

•Behavior of ion-beam-induced crystallization in amorphous SiC is investigated.•Similar crystallization behavior is observed in amorphous and amorphized SiC.•The crystallization rate weakly depends on irradiation temperatures up to 900 K. Ion irradiation induced nucleation and growth of nanoparticles in amorphous SiC at elevated temperatures are investigated in this study. Both as-deposited amorphous and Kr ion irradiation-amorphized SiC films are used for the investigation. Similar behavior of particle precipitation in the two types of the films is observed. It is found that the threshold temperature for nucleation is between 550 and 700 K, which is considerably higher than the critical temperature for full amorphization in SiC irradiated with Kr ions. There is a temperature regime up to at least 900 K, where the nucleation and growth rates are only weakly dependent of the irradiation temperature. This temperature regime is potentially useful to tailor the size and density of nanocrystalline SiC precipitates by optimizing the ion irradiation conditions.